Like a Lethifold
by Expecting Rain
Summary: Luna's stay at Malfoy Manor and after. Featuring Bellatrix Lestrange.


**A/N: **Random dark oneshot with a few instances of unconventional grammar. Xx starlight-moon xX 's story "Protege Moi" is to thank for my interest in Bellatrix – it's on my favorites list, and you should all go read it.

In case you don't know about Lethifolds, here's the definition from hp-lexicon (dot) org, which I think they got from _Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them._

**Lethifold **(living shroud) XXXXX : This dangerous beast resembles a half-inch thick black cloak which moves along the ground at night, hunting its prey. It attacks sleeping humans, smothers them, then digests them, all in their bed, leaving no trace at all. The only known defense against a Lethifold is a Patronus Charm. Thankfully, this frightening creature is rare, only found in the tropics.

I don't own Harry Potter and the only reward I get from this is reviews (hint, hint).

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**Like a Lethifold**

Sometimes, when the darkness grows thick and the silence becomes heavy, when the air feels like a blanket she's hiding under, breath hot and suffocating inside the material, she comes for her. It makes her think of Lethifolds.

Her attacker has mastered Apparition to the point of almost silence, the faint pop audible only to dogs and Crumple-Horned Snorkacks. The first sign that someone else is there is the jet of blue light that reaches out and touches the only other person here, that stops Mr. Ollivander's comforting drone and leaves Luna alone in the darkness and not alone.

Her attacker is not always an attacker. Sometimes she wants her to talk, sometimes she wants her to listen so badly that she forgets to ask even one question. Sometimes she likes to hear her scream. Always, their meetings are conducted in total darkness.

Bellatrix's visits are terrible enough that Luna is sure that an Umgubular Slashkilter must be somehow involved, or that perhaps Bellatrix is not a real person, is really some innovative cross between a Dementor and a Banshee and a Chimaera.

Whatever she is, Luna does not like Bellatrix. Bellatrix hurt Neville, killed Stubby Boardman.

Bellatrix hurts her.

It is not the Cruciatus that scares her, or not only the Cruciatus. It is Bellatrix's secrets, whispered in her harsh voice that always sounds as if it is on the brink of laughter, even when she is confessing to murders and tortures and hatred and deceit. Especially when she is confessing to murders and tortures and hatred and deceit.

When Bellatrix talks, Luna doesn't say very much. She gets the feeling that Bellatrix doesn't want to know what she thinks, only wants someone to listen. Luna is used to listening, but this is different than at Hogwarts. At Hogwarts she listens because people forget she's there. But here, though she's covered in darkness, she's never felt more watched.

Sometimes Bellatrix asks her questions. Not questions like, what is Harry doing or where is Ronald Weasley – other people have already asked her those questions, asked her again and again and not believed her when she says she doesn't know - but questions like, why can you see thestrals and why do you wear your butterbeer cork necklace. Why do you believe in Gulping Plimpies. Why are you friends with Harry.

When Luna talks, Bellatrix says a lot. Not a lot of words, but nevertheless a lot. With just a chuckle, Bellatrix says more than Professor Binns ever has. And when Bellatrix says things like I know just what you mean and we're so alike you and me, that is what hurts and scares Luna more than the Cruciatus ever could.

She says it so often that Luna begins to believe her.

Sometimes Bellatrix makes her do things. She calls a house-elf and tells Luna to hit it, kick it, tell itself to bang its head against the wall, and she points her wand at Mr. Ollivander until Luna does what she's told.

Luna used to play Exploding Snap with Ginny back at Hogwarts, and Ginny tried to teach her how to bluff. Luna tries to bluff once, and Bellatrix uses a curse that slices open Mr. Ollivander's chest and he's bleeding bleeding bleeding and there's more blood than she's ever seen and it makes her think of Gurdyroots and it makes her think of her mother, and Bellatrix says she can fix him, she can make him all right, all Luna has to do is break the house-elf's finger.

Luna doesn't try bluffing after that.

She doesn't tell Mr. Ollivander about the visits, and he doesn't suspect anything. Even after Belltarix sliced him open, when she left and he woke up he didn't notice. Luna can't tell if Wrackspurts have got a hold of him or if he just doesn't want to know.

More than ever, she hopes that Wrackspurts are real.

And the worst thing, the worst worst worst thing, the thing that makes her feel like a Lethifold herself, is that when she's gone, when Harry comes and takes her away, she misses Bellatrix. She misses her laugh, she misses her eyes on her in the darkness, she misses the way Bellatrix listens to her. She misses meaning that much to somebody.

She hates Bellatrix for making her miss her. And she hates Bellatrix for making her hate.

At the Battle of Hogwarts, Bellatrix sees her and turns to her, flinging ribbons of red and green, and Luna knows that she wants to hear her scream again, but this time Ginny and Hermione are there, and then Mrs. Weasley joins in, and Mrs. Weasley and Bellatrix duel and duel and duel and Luna is wishing that she wasn't hoping that Bellatrix will survive.

She doesn't. Luna isn't sure, but she thinks that right before the green hits Bellatrix, she looks at Luna. We're so alike, you and I, Luna almost hears.

When Luna cries later that day, she lets people think it's for Colin and Justin and Terry and Cho. She lets people think it's for Fred Weasley and Professor Lupin. She lets people think it's because they've won and she's alive and it's all over all over now.

But it's never over. Sometimes, in the night, when she's in her bed at home and the only eyes watching her are the portraits of her friends, when she's in her four-poster in Ravenclaw and the only people there are Olivia and Ellie and Faye, when she's with Ginny on the sofa in Gryffindor tower because Ginny needs someone to listen, sometimes the darkness grows thick and the silence grows heavy, and the air presses against her like a Lethifold, and she comes for her. And Luna knows that though it's all in her mind, that doesn't mean it's not real.


End file.
